The Slitheen & the Osiran
by jg16395
Summary: 'The Osiran will rise again - beware the Wrath of the Destroyer, Child of Gallifrey.' This was the message received via emergency call from the son of Romana and the Doctor. It was also enough to warrant Sarah Jane Smith calling on Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood Three for help. The reason - Sutekh, Last of the Osirans, is on the rise once again... A/N: Don't own Doctor Who.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hey there. Welcome to Part II of the Crimson Cub saga. This is actually ahead of when I'd planned to begin this story - I'd actually hoped to finish 'The Raggedy Man &amp; the Regal Girl' and 'Forever Running' before I got to work on this. But ideas began popping into my head - and I wanted to get them onto the website before they faded from my brain. Besides...if I'd stuck to the original plan, the wait would have been too long for some. Anyhow, here it is...such as it is so far. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter and the chapters to come. :)**

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Prologue

**The** lesser life-forms of the Cosmos oft spoke rumours and tales of fates worse than death...but very few beings actually _knew_ what such a fate would entail. And it was most inopportune for _him_ that he did – for to truly _know,_ one must _experience_ a fate as the one he had been condemned to _twice over._ His own race could not hold even the ghost of a flame to the accursed being who had robbed him of his power. The weaklings of the Osiran Race had imprisoned him for 7,000 years in the Eye of Horus...but as he had neared the objective of obtaining the freedom that should long have been _his_...a Time Lord _insect_ deprived him of his physical body in the Time-Space Tunnel connecting the Eye of Horus to the Scarman Priory. With that act, every irritating little _Termite_ from the Homeworld of the Time Lords – Gallifrey, if he recalled correctly – had earned his enmity forever more.

He had long desired to crush those miserable insects...but while he had earned his freedom from Horus' curse of everlasting incarceration, most of his power had been destroyed – with only his mind-based power left to him – by the insect who styled himself as 'the Doctor'. How he _loathed_ that name. His temperament had been much like that of Horus – taking the view that all sapient life-forms were worthy of life. How _laughable_...had he fully succeeded in freeing himself, he would have been able to crack the Earth open and hurl the remains into the never-ending blackness of Space. Those pathetic Humans were not worthy of having _evolved_...anymore than any other life-form in the Universe. The Time Lords...the Sontarans...the Cybermen...the Daleks...all of them had the _bare-faced effrontery _to declare that theirs was the most powerful race in the Cosmos...he could have crushed every last one of them and ended their petty little Wars single-mindedly – not even the Nightmare Child or the Could-Have-Been King would have survived. And once he had regained his power..._none_ would survive – not even the accursed _Doctor._ The Oncoming Storm...the Bringer of Darkness...he disputed both titles with all vigour in the Cosmos. The Last of the Time Lords and the Last of the Osirans would meet again beyond all doubt...and the Osiran would triumph over he who would not receive the mercy of his gift of death. And the Doctor was just the beginning. _All _life was his enemy...and _all_ life would either perish or despair...

But first, he would need to regain the powers he had lost. Having one's body aged to death might have befallen a being less possessed of the guile and ingenuity which Osirans were infamous for. But the wiser of his enemies should recall that his mind was always several steps ahead. Before the other Osirans had cornered him on Earth, he had created the means for his life to continue beyond the expected lifespan of his race. Once he had performed this nigh-impossible feat – for it required but the greatest forces of will – he had sealed the devices that had long ensured his continued existence away inside a place so well-concealed that none of his fellow Osirans had been able to find it. This place he had returned to after he had been robbed of his body...and he waited...waited until the Time Lords and the Dalek Empire were but memories to the Universe at large. Once both enemies were gone, he contacted a group of lesser beings that titled themselves as the Family Slitheen (this they did with no small amount of pride...but he could not afford to antagonise them) – and offered to provide them the resources they would need to compete amongst their rivals if they but provided him with the component necessary to complete one of the devices whose key component had succumbed to the ravages of Time. The gullible fools agreed – for it was an offer they could never refuse. But promises to other life-forms had no validity – they too would perish under the Reign of Sutekh the Destroyer...and all that did not would be trapped forever in the most crippling of despairs and agonies ever known in the Cosmos...


	2. Of Recollections & Resolve

Of Recollections &amp; Resolve

**Once** the TARDIS had archived the Space-time Co-ordinates for Ariva Lykos, the Doctor and Romana had set her at full pelt towards Earth in 2009 and begun to get dressed. To make it a bit easier, the Time Lady had switched on the Stabilisers to allow them to multitask. While this was happening, she took the chance to get the Doctor to fill her in on exactly how dire the situation was.

"Doctor..." she began. "I thought History recorded that Sutekh had been destroyed by 740 Osirans 7,000 Earth years ago...around 5100 BCE."

"So did I...until the TARDIS was driven off course on its way back to UNIT HQ, landing me and Sarah Jane in 1911," answered the Doctor, before deciding to slip in a quip; "One of my favourite years, actually." This earned a whack on the shoulder from Romana. "I was somewhere around 750."

"Are you sure you weren't 753?" She just _had_ to slide in an age jab.

"Oi!" the older Time Lord weakly protested...but Romana just smiled a cheeky Cheshire Cat grin. "Whatever...what does it matter anyway?" he mumbled.

"You were saying?" she pressed him for more of the details.

"So...Sarah and I _did_ arrive at UNIT HQ...but years before UNIT even _existed,"_ he continued. "Back then, it was a Priory under the ownership of one Professor Marcus Scarman...who was on an Archaeological Expedition to Saqqara in Egypt." He paused for a moment to take a breath – he had plenty of Time to recount the story. By this point, there was no trace of care-free spirit in the Doctor – his tone had become perfectly grim. Given the horror stories of what Sutekh could do and _had_ done, it was _completely_ called for. "He opened the Eye of Horus...and entered it."

"And Sutekh...despite being imprisoned...still had the power to kill Scarman?" Romana needed only _one_ guess to realise what had happened.

Her fellow Time Lord nodded. "And then reanimate the corpse." She grimaced at this – she could already tell that she was not going to like this _one little bit._ But the information could prove crucial to stopping Sutekh. "Between that moment in Time and when _I_ actually arrived at the Priory...Scarman's Servant turned out to be working with the Service Robots – which looked like Mummies."

"Why am I not surprised?" the Time Lady asked, with a faint, amused sarcasm in her voice. "The whole of Egyptology was based on the Osiran culture." She paused. "So...how do _you_ fit into this, Doctor?"

"Well...first I tried transmitting a jamming signal from a nearby Lodge using a device devised by Scarman's brother, Laurence...along with a Slave Relay contained in the Egyptian Servant's ring," the Doctor replied, keeping his voice devoid of emotion. Romana couldn't find fault in the idea – it _did_ appear to be rather sound...and perhaps one of the few plans the Doctor actually _had._ "They invented the Radio Telescope forty years early...though _they_ called it a _Marconiscope."_ He allowed himself a small smile at the genius of the Scarman brothers...even if it _could_ have altered the Timestream. However, this smile soon faded. "It _didn't_ work – Laurence just couldn't accept that Marcus was already dead..." He trailed off, his mind going back to that point in his 4th life...

*DW* **_Earth, near the Scarman Priory...1911..._** *DW*

**The** Marconiscope was now a useless piece of scrap metal, thanks to Laurence Scarman's interference. In spite of the Doctor telling him it was too late to save Marcus, the _fool_ had gone and given the Mummies the chance to destroy what could have been his _only_ opportunity to stop Sutekh from breaking free from the Eye of Horus!

"Are you alright?" Four asked him.

"Yes...I think so-" but he was cut off.

"You don't deserve to be! You nearly got us all killed!" Four snapped in his fury. He wasn't sure what to be angrier about – that he had endangered his companion...or that he'd inadvertently given the Mummies the chance to destroy the device.

"I'm sorry!" Laurence tried to apologise.

"What's worse...you've probably wrecked what was my only chance of stopping Sutekh!"

"Look, forgive me, Doctor...I was thinking of my brother-" the man tried again...to be once again brutally cut off.

"LISTEN!" Four seethed, absolutely fed up with the man's idiocy. "What's walking about out there is no longer your brother! IT IS SIMPLY AN ANIMATED HUMAN CADAVER! Animated by Sutekh – do you understand?!" Laurence nodded, but Four didn't stop. "And if Sutekh succeeds in freeing himself, the consequences will be _incalculable._ STAY _HERE!"_

*DW* **_TARDIS...Time Vortex...Present Time..._** *DW*

**Romana** gasped in shock. "He sabotaged the Marconiscope?"

"Yep – he tried to stop Sarah from using it to break Sutekh's mental hold over Marcus' cadaver," the Doctor confirmed. "Soon enough, the Mummies ended up destroying it. With _that_ idea out of the window, Sarah and I had to use Gelignite to blow up the Osiran War Missile projected at the Pyramid of Mars." He smirked slightly. "Sutekh managed to contain the explosion with his mind...until I broke his concentration. _That_ was an experience I hope never to repeat." He grimaced as he recalled those torturous moments in Sutekh's Tomb...

*DW* **_Sutekh's Tomb, Saqqara...1911..._** *DW*

**As** the Doctor entered the underground Chamber, he caught sight of the loathsome creature that could destroy all if released. "Sutekh...Last of the Osirans," he whispered. Not once in all his travels had he imagined that he'd actually meet this _thing._

Almost at once, Sutekh caught sight of him. But once he focused his attention on the Doctor...his mental suppression over the exothermic reaction caused by the exploding Gelignite broke...and the War Missile exploded, hopefully taking with it any chance of Sutekh's escape. Not a few moments later, the Doctor screamed as his body was wracked by excruciating agony. And for a while...it seemed like that would be the end of him...

"No...you will _not_ die _yet,"_ Sutekh decided, releasing the Time Lord from his agony...for the moment. "Identify yourself."

"Just destroy me, Sutekh," the Doctor replied. There was nothing he could realistically do to escape...short of Sutekh willing it to be so. "Nothing else now is left within your power."

_"Identify yourself,"_ the Last Osiran repeated, this time with more menace than the first. "It is within my power to choose the _manner_ of your death." So saying, Sutekh began torturing him again. "I can, if I choose, keep you alive for _centuries,_ wracked by the most _excruciating_ pain. Since your interference has condemned me _forever_ to remain a prisoner in the Eye of Horus...it would be a fitting end – you would make an amusing diversion." By now, the Doctor was then released from his agony once again. "Identify yourself..._plaything_ of Sutekh."

"I'm a Traveller," the Doctor answered.

"From..._where?"_ Sutekh pressed further for elaboration.

"Gallifrey...in the Constellation of Kasterborous..."

"Names mean nothing – what is the Binary Location from Galactic Zero Centre?" the Osiran demanded.

"10-0-11-0-0 by 0-2," the Doctor finally gave the answer.

"I know the planet," Sutekh recalled. "Data Retrieval." The nearby Computer began its work. Once it was over, the creature turned to face the Time Lord once again. "So...you are a Time Lord?"

"I renounced the society of Time Lords – now I'm simply a Traveller."

"In Time and Space?" the Osiran asked. When the Doctor did not reply immediately, Sutekh tortured him some more. _"Time_...and _Space?"_

"YES! YES!" the Doctor screamed, wishing for it to stop – the agony was _unbearable._ Not a moment too soon...it did.

"Approach closer," the Osiran commanded him. The Time Lord did so, no small amount of dread filling his soul. "What are you called, Time Lord?"

"Doctor," he whispered, still struggling to muster his voice – the agony Sutekh had inflicted upon him not a few moments earlier was still making his nervous system twitch.

"I offer you an alliance, Doctor. Serve me truly...and an Empire can be yours," Sutekh presented his ultimatum.

But the thought was absolutely _repulsive_ to the Doctor – and absolutely _laughable_ at the same time. "Serve _you,_ Sutekh?" he sneered. "Your name is abominated in _every_ civilised world...whether that name be Set, Satan, Sodos-"

"Serve me, Doctor," the loathsome being repeated...this time with more force.

"Never!" No sooner had he said this than Sutekh had once again begun to wrack his body in agony using his will...and he began howling.

"You pit your _puny_ will against _mine?"_ Sutekh laughed...a laugh which spoke volumes of his sadistic, psychopathic nature. "Kneel!"

"NO!" the Time Lord roared, struggling to maintain control over his mind and hold onto the grains of defiance. He would _not_ kneel before this absolute _abomination_ of the known Universe!

_"Kneel_ before the might of Sutekh!" the Osiran just continued laughing, overpowering the Doctor's mind in no Time at all. The Time Lord began kneeling, puppet under the will of the puppet-master. "In my presence..._you_ are an _Ant_...a _Termite._ _Abase yourself, you grovelling insect!"_

*DW* **_TARDIS...Time Vortex...Present Time..._** *DW*

**"It** doesn't take too much imagination to see why," Romana replied with a sickened grimace, revolted – no, _repulsed beyond belief_ – by Sutekh's sadistic actions. The Doctor had allowed her to see into his mind...and she'd had to stop herself from crying out in horror every time she'd seen him being wracked by the agony the twisted Osiran had inflicted upon him. "What happened then?"

"Then Sutekh realised that Sarah and I travelled together in the TARDIS," her fellow Time Lord recalled. "He lifted the TARDIS Key right out of my pocket and sent it to Scarman and the Mummies via Tunnel-Mail." He laughed – however hollowly – though the joke didn't quite register with the Time Lady. "A...Time-Space Tunnel," he tried explaining...in spite of explanation being the sure-fire way to kill a joke. Nevertheless, she gave a small smile as she shook her head in amusement. "I told him that it would be impossible for Scarman to control the TARDIS...on the basis that the Controls were Isomorphic."

Romana could only stare at that. "And he believed you? In spite of the fact that you _knew_ that the Old Girl's Controls are _not_ Isomorphic, but respond to whomever they choose?" He nodded. "You must be a better liar than I thought."

"Or Sutekh had a false sense of security," her lover answered...again with no air of playful exaggerative arrogance in his tone. And Romana could see why. If Sutekh really _had_ begun to gather his power again...then the situation was deadly serious. Daleks...Nimons...Sontarans..._all_ of them were small fry compared to Sutekh at full power. "Either way, he put me under his will so that Scarman could reach the Pyramid of Mars and carry out his order to destroy the Power Source of the Eye of Horus." He paused for a moment. "What they didn't count on was my respiratory bypass when a Mummy tried to choke me right after we arrived. After a race against Time to stop the Power Source from being destroyed – which Sarah and I lost, mind you – we rushed back to the TARDIS...as we still had the Time Factor to on our side."

"Of course...the Mean Time it takes for Radio Waves to travel from Mars to Earth!" the Time Lady realised, beginning to form an idea as to how he had stopped Sutekh from escaping. "The Eye of Horus was still functioning approximately two minutes after the Power Source was taken out!"

"Exactly!" the Doctor confirmed. "Once I got back I removed the Time Control from the TARDIS..."

"And connected it to the Time-Space Tunnel?" He nodded, confirming Romana's hypothesis as to the methods the Doctor used to thwart Sutekh. His mind drifted back to that moment...and hers with it...

*DW* **_Scarman Priory...1911..._** *DW*

**As** Sutekh was preparing to exit the Threshold of the Time-Space Tunnel, the Doctor activated the TARDIS Time Control. As a result, the Osiran could not leave the Tunnel...not that it would stop him trying.

"Who _dares_ to interfere?!" snarled Sutekh.

"You're caught in a Temporal trap, Sutekh," the Doctor smirked. _Now I've got him...the bastard isn't going to be getting away anytime soon!_

"Time Lord!" the Osiran hissed angrily. "I shall _destroy_ you...I shall _destroy_ you!"

"How long do Osirans live, Sutekh?" he asked in a feigned tone of innocence – he knew _exactly_ what was going to happen to the loathsome _abhorrence._

And if the next words were anything to go by...Sutekh did as well. "Release me!" he demanded.

"Never! You're caught in the corridor of Eternity!"

"RELEASE ME, _INSECT_ – OR I SHALL DESTROY THE COSMOS!" Sutekh howled, enraged at the Time Lord's meddling, still unable to reach the Exit Threshold.

The Doctor was torn threefold. Part of him felt like laughing – there wasn't much Sutekh could do trapped in a Time-Space Tunnel. Another part fully recognised that he was about to commit genocide...with the final part accepting that Sutekh was too dangerous to live. "You're a thousand years beyond the 20th Century now, Sutekh – go on for another _ten_ thousand!"

"I'll spare the planet Earth...I'LL GIVE IT TO YOU AS A PLAYTHING! RELEASE ME!" the Last Osiran tried pleading. Now he was subsuming into the background of the Time-Space Tunnel.

_"No,_ Sutekh – the Time of the Osirans is _long past,"_ was all the Doctor could say.

"NOOOO!" Sutekh gave one final death scream before fading away completely...

*DW* **_Present Time..._** *DW*

**"So** you moved the Exit Threshold of the Time-Space Tunnel into the Far Future?" Romana surmised. "No wonder that Sutekh could never have reached the end – you effectively _aged_ him to death."

"Which _should_ have been the end of the bastard," the Doctor soured furiously. "But I forgot my own advice to Sarah Jane. 'Never underestimate Sutekh – he thinks of everything.' If I had to guess...I'd say I only destroyed his _body._ The mind must still be out there...and I was _so sure!"_ He kicked the TARDIS Console...and stubbed his foot as a result.

"You're scared, aren't you?" his lover asked him as she placed her arms around him. It wasn't an accusation...but rather a statement of fact.

"Terrified," he confessed shakily as he struggled both to speak and to look into her eyes. He had forgotten how to be strong for family, probably due to the fact that he had not travelled with any family member in a long stretch of Time – that was, if he had ever known how. But regardless...here he was, unable to confess, in words, to Romana – the woman who was now closer to him than any Wedding could have brought them – why he was absolutely terrified.

But as her next words indicated...it seemed he hadn't needed to. "For me and Jonathan?" she guessed.

He nodded. "For you and Jonathan...for Sarah Jane and her friends...for Torchwood and UNIT...for _anyone_ whose bright, shining lives Sutekh would deem worthless and decide to destroy or turn into a living Hell," he told her, his voice gathering its resolve once again. Tears were now in his eyes as he turned to her. "I've lost so much, Romana," he whispered. "Every time a friend leaves...whether they find someone else...or something beckons them away...or they forget me...they've all broken my hearts. Quite frankly...it's a miracle that so many of them survive the danger and the pain..."

"Ssshh," Romana whispered, pulling him into a tighter embrace. "I know, Doctor. I saw you when _I_ left you around a century ago in my life...I saw your eyes. In all the Time you've been travelling...you've craved a constant. You've had the Old Girl...but you've never been able to connect with her on a fully interactive level...and that's what you've really needed." The TARDIS gave a burble...as though acknowledging this as true. She paused. "It's also in front of you at this very moment. I'm here...and it would take something _truly_ impossible to make me leave for anything short of death..."

"Thank you," he whispered. _How could I have gotten so lucky as to have Romanadvoratrelundar – **this** wonderful Time Lady – in my lives...actually promising forever?_ He thought to himself, mind still uncomprehending.

_Because this Time Lady remembers that you brought her to life...and wants you in her life, Theta,_ she replied with a smile. "Now then," she switched to verbal, "why don't we get back to flying the TARDIS on Manual, as we no longer have to busy ourselves getting dressed?"

Indeed, the Doctor was now back in his brown pinstriped suit and white Converse trainers...while Romana had gone for the frock coat, waistcoat &amp; trousers combo she'd once put on just before they'd had their run in with the Nimons. The older Time Lord couldn't help but notice the way that the clothes hugged her form...needless to say, he had to shake himself out of that train of thought before he could even begin to entertain the idea of ravishing her again...

"Don't worry – I plan on having my wicked way with you later," she teased him as the TARDIS finally landed on Earth once again...and once again in 2009. "Now then...shall we go and bring our friends up to speed?" she asked her blushing lover as she gestured to the Door...


	3. Conspiracy with Raxacoricofallapatorians

Conspiracy with Raxacoricofallapatorians

**The** creature known as the Destroyer...the Lord of Death...the Last Osiran...was in deep scheming thought. He was dwelling on what gruesome fate to bestow upon the Time Lord he now called his most hated enemy. Even Horus had not infuriated him as the Doctor had. Killing the man outright was too quick and merciful – the _insect_ did _not_ deserve his gift of death. He could tear his nervous system apart...or he could keep him on the very _edge_ of life. There were no limits to what agonizing fates the Lord of Death could dream of. But before he could entertain anymore possibilities of what kind of end to bestow upon the Doctor, the klaxon of the Comm System in his Fortress had rang out, informing him of an incoming transmission. It appeared the Slitheen wished to commune with him. They would do well to have a good reason to disturb him at this time! Of all the insolent _slimebuckets!_

Using the only thing he could to activate the Comm System (his will – for that was all that was left of him), he answered the transmission. "Speak, and be quick – I was occupied with my plans," his ghostly voice commanded.

"Great Destroyer," one of the Slitheen's croaky voices answered over the Comm (he had not allowed them to use his true name – only the most devoted of his followers could, and he had found Slitheen notorious for deception and treachery), "I have called to inform you that the Operatives within the Unified Intelligence Taskforce have made contact with the leading figures of the Taskforce and with Torchwood Three."

"And you have the information I require?" the Osiran answered.

"Yes," replied the Slitheen. "But we have discovered more than we have bargained for."

"Explain!" the Destroyer demanded.

"Four of the observed enemies appeared to know more about you than the others," the lesser creature replied.

"Show me the visual replay," the ghostly Lord of Death ordered.

"Yes, Great One," came the answer. The Osiran activated the Visual Monitor in his Throne Room, and eagerly observed the events unfolding on the Display...

_"Just how powerful is this...Sutekh...supposed to be, anyway?" _a black-haired Human female with a Welsh accent asked the others.

_"He's omnipotent, Gwen,"_ answered a black-haired, American-accented man in WW2 Soldier garb. _"If he comes back"_ – the Osiran scoffed at the idiot's use of the word 'if'; his resurrection was only a matter of Time! – _"there isn't anyone who could stand against him."_

_"Affirmative; not even the Time Lords could meaningfully oppose Sutekh at the height of his power,"_ chirped an annoying metallic voice, evidently coming from out of vision of the Operative. When the Operative leant forward, however, he realised that the metallic voice belonged to a Mammalian-based Robot, marked with the Human characters 'K-9'.

_"Seriously?"_ asked a boy with short, black hair. _"Not even this Doctor that Sarah Jane's told us about?"_ At these words, he felt both a stab of pure hatred _and_ a vague feeling of recollection.

_"No, Clyde,"_ answered a woman's voice, at which the field of vision turned to face the origin of that voice. When it stopped, the Osiran recognised the woman – she was older than he remembered, but it was unmistakeably the woman who had been travelling with the Doctor when he and the Time Lord had first met. He remembered probing the Doctor's mind for that information, and had discovered her name – Sarah Jane Smith. _"Even when he was imprisoned in the Eye of Horus, Sutekh was able to take over the Doctor's mind. He killed a man and turned him into a zombie. And using the TARDIS, the Doctor showed me what the Earth would have been like if Sutekh had been allowed to escape – a burnt, charred rock orbiting a dead star."_

_"So everyone dies if Sutekh becomes omnipotent again,"_ a young girl surmised the gathering. There were unified nods.

_"But how was K-9 able to decipher the graffiti message?" _asked a brunette boy, his tone one of confusion, his words telling the Osiran that he was not a regular Human boy.

_"K-9 must have joined the TARDIS Crew after Dad stopped Sutekh," _another boy, with blonde hair and very anachronistic garb, answered him. _"No doubt he would have programmed the general knowledge about the Osirans into his memory."_

_"Master Jonathan is correct, Master Luke,"_ the irritating Robot named K-9 confirmed with the signature chirping voice. _"The Doctor-Master added the information on Sutekh to all K-9 units he constructed." _The ghostly creature realised that the blonde boy, Jonathan, was the Doctor's son...and he realised the perfect way to destroy the insect – family. He would destroy the boy first, along with his mother...and keep the Doctor alive in the most excruciating agony forevermore. And along the way...he would probe the Time Lord's mind for memories of other family members he could use to drive him insane with grief.

_"And Miss Smith was there at the Scarman Priory when Sutekh tried to escape from the Eye of Horus," _the American man summarised, _"which is how **she** knows about Sutekh...and Romana will know because the Doctor will have told her."_ This woman – Romana, the man called her – was implied to be the boy's mother.

_"Pretty much, Captain,"_ Jonathan simply told the man.

_"Who's this Romana everyone here's talking about, anyway? Maria's only mentioned her once or twice," _the boy named Clyde asked the gathering.

_"She's...the Doctor's girlfriend, Clyde – she returned from an alternate Universe once she found out what the Daleks were up to when they invaded,"_ the girl who he guessed was Maria replied, briefly hesitating with the first part of the sentence as though she were not sure how to describe two Time Lords in a relationship.

_"And brought a son back with her – yours truly," _Jonathan told Clyde, confirming the Osiran's hypothesis. The Human boy just looked bewildered, but before he could comment on what the young Time Lord had said, the former turned back to the American Human. _"And you know about all this because..."_

_"Torchwood kept an eye on all of the Doctor's doings ever since 1879," _the Captain answered the young Time Lord – the creature didn't pretend to understand how a Time Lord was raised from their cradle...and to be perfectly honest, he didn't care. It was of no consequence to him. _"They long suspected that it was the Doctor who caused the Scarman Priory to be burnt down. I often had to stop them from interfering, on the grounds that the Doctor had not had the encounter with Queen Victoria yet."_

_"No doubt that's part of the reason why Torchwood and UNIT have never really seen eye-to-eye,"_ Jonathan commented wryly.

_"Well, they'll just have to," _Sarah Jane Smith told them, casting her eyes around to all the UNIT Soldiers and the three Torchwood Operatives. _"Sutekh's far too dangerous to be wasting Time on petty catfights. All we can do now is sit waiting for the Doctor and Romana to arrive."_

As soon as she said this, the creature shut down the Display. He was infuriated beyond measure! The brat Jonathan had no doubt informed his Time Lord parents of the Destroyer's impending resurrection! He had endured the most agonizing eternity of impotence! He would _not_ be denied now! He had planned on encountering the Doctor again at some point, but he had _not_ bargained for it to occur here and now, or for there to be a Time Lady assisting him in what would soon be his renewed endeavour to destroy him! This called for an immediate acceleration of his plan...

"Listen to my orders, Slitheen," the creature used his will to call over his reactivated Comm.

"Hearing you, Great Destroyer," was the answer from their Liaison.

"The nature of the information you have forwarded to me merits an acceleration of the plan," he informed them. "We have been compromised. The Humans have made my enemy aware of our operation. We must put the plan into action at once. Begin the Quantum Energy collection."

"Yes, Great One," the Liaison answered.

"There is another matter."

"May we ask what it is?"

"The oldest Human female present in the replay," the Osiran told him. "Sarah Jane Smith."

"We've had encounters with that woman before, Great One," the Liaison told him. "She is responsible for the deaths of three of our family."

"She is also guilty of assisting the Doctor to deny me my return," the creature informed his collaborators. "You are to inform the young Slitheen boy that he is not to deny me my revenge on her. If it satisfies him, first I will destroy all that Sarah Jane Smith has to live for...then the young boy may exact retribution for the death of his father. Do you understand?"

"As you command, Great One." With that, the transmission ceased...and Sutekh was left to ponder on the victims he would punish for their interference in his escape from the Eye of Horus...the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith...they would pay _dearly_ for reducing him to little more than a _phantom._ They had interfered for the last time...and _this_ would mark the beginning of the rest of their lives...

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**A/N: Man...that took longer than it should have done. To all who have still been reading this since the last update - thank you for your patience! :D Please leave a review and let me know what you think - it means a lot! Thanks for reading! :D**


	4. Death Trap

**You're all queuing up to exterminate me for not updating sooner, aren't you? There's a couple of good reasons for that, though.**

**One - I had writer's block for this fic. It's just that I sometimes get the feeling that my skills at writing something original aren't all that great. You know what that's like, right?**

**Two - I've been a bit busy with 'Forever Running' AND 'The Raggedy Man &amp; the Regal Girl', even though I sometimes (*read often*) get writer's block for the former.**

**To boil it all down; I'M SORRY! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!**

**Anyway, here's chapter 4. Hope you enjoy reading it! :/**

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Death Trap

**The** stretch of Time that passed at UNIT HQ from the meeting between the Children of Time (at least, those who had been able to gather there) and the arrival of the TARDIS was almost agonising. They didn't have the Time to be waiting around – they had to stop Sutekh _now!_ No doubt he was already plotting his return...and if and when he did, there would be no chance of stopping him.

However, no sooner had they begun thinking this...than the TARDIS began materialising in the room.

"About time, too," Jack remarked, a bit irritated.

"It does make you wonder how they can call themselves Time Lords, doesn't it?" Jonathan replied dryly. "And I really shouldn't be disrespecting my elders, should I?"

"No," Sarah Jane told him. "No, you shouldn't. That's _our_ job." Almost everyone began chuckling...just as the Doctor and Romana stepped out of the TARDIS.

"Allons-y!" the older Time Lord called out as he stepped out. He soon began to notice their giggles and chuckles. "What?" No answer. "Stop it!"

"What are you giggling about?!" Romana snapped at them as they continued. "There's an Osiran out there, planning to kill us all, and you're just giggling your faces off!" _These_ were the words that stopped them in their tracks. "Thank you," she told them. "Now...let's get to work."

"That remark is not logical, Mistress Romana," chirped a voice she recognised – when she looked at the floor, she saw a Robotic Dog she'd never imagined she'd meet again after leaving E-Space. "Master Jonathan and his associates have been summarising all available information pertaining to Sutekh."

"K-9!" she cried happily. "A newer model?" she turned to the Doctor, who nodded.

"How did you think Mr Smith generated the Block Transfer Warp Field, Mum?" Jonathan asked his mother, smiling.

"Block Transfer?!" the Doctor cried. His son nodded. "But that can only be done by-"

"Species with highly-developed computational powers?" the _de facto_ Time Lord finished for him. "Good thing Mr Smith is a Xylok, isn't it?"

"In some ways," Maria muttered under her breath, her mind going back to her second encounter with the Slitheen Family – Mr Smith had proven to be capable of _great_ deviousness on that occasion. Clyde couldn't help but nod in agreement with her muttered statement.

The Doctor then began taking stock of his son's dress sense. Gone was the multicoloured scarf, baggy trousers and rust red corduroy jacket he'd been wearing when he first arrived in N-Space...and in their place could be seen a cream-coloured jacket with red piping, an ivory red-collared polo shirt, cream-coloured chinos plus braces, white plimsolls, and a CELERY stick on the left lapel of the jacket.

"My son wears a vegetable!" he exclaimed to Romana, overjoyed, almost completely forgetting about the fatally serious problem on their hands. She smiled, but made sure to train her peripheral vision on two UNIT Soldiers in the room with them. Something didn't look quite right with them. One was standing almost robotically...the other looked like he was trying to conceal a smirk.

"Is something wrong with that, Dad?" Jonathan asked him, not failing to take notice of the fact that his mother was partly focused on the two nearby UNIT Soldiers were being conspicuously quiet about the whole thing.

"Wrong?! Kiddo, you rule! You rule!" Despite the urgent nature of the situation, the others present couldn't help but snigger at the Doctor. "You wear a CELERY STICK!"

"Dad!" the boy stopped him. "There is something very nasty coming for us and we've got to do something about it very, _very,_ quickly. Right now, it really would help if my skinny idiot of a father wasn't ranting in my face about my sartorial grace." With that, the Doctor sobered up.

"Quite," Jack agreed, cutting in. "Sartorial debate later – Sutekh now."

"Just what I was about to say – especially since I thought we'd seen the last of him in 1911," Sarah Jane added her own two pence, fixing a stare at the Doctor for the second part of her sentence.

"So did I, Sarah," the Time Lord sighed, the full gravity of the situation beginning to weight down on his mind. "But it looks like I forgot my own advice to you. 'Never underestimate Sutekh...'"

"'...he thinks of everything,'" the Journalist finished, repeating the words used by the 4th Doctor when he, Sarah Jane and Laurence Scarman had been hiding from the animated cadaver of Laurence's brother, Marcus, in the Scarman Priory. "But how could he have found a way out of the Time-Space Tunnel?"

"We haven't the faintest idea, Sarah Jane," Romana told the woman the Doctor had oft-called his best friend (aside from Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, that is), who she had decided to name honorary aunt to her son.

"This is a sentence I never thought I'd say...but right now, I _hate_ not knowing," the Doctor got out through gritted teeth. He had hoped never to stumble across Sutekh again after 1911...but even leaving the monster trapped in the Time-Space Tunnel had been the result of wishful thinking on his part. Battling an Osiran permitted no margin for error. He'd been 'shooting from the hip', so to speak, defeating Sutekh last time – he couldn't rely on the chance of the Time Factor in _this_ battle of cunning. "This is _maddening!"_ he all but growled in vexation, unaware that he and the Children of Time were being watched...

*DW* **_elsewhere..._** *DW*

**One** of the Family Slitheen was watching the live stream from the Servicer's visual feed. It was a good thing that the Slitheen made a habit of using Slipstream Compression Technology – they may not have been able to get this information otherwise. Even more fortuitous had been the fact that they'd fitted it to the new Servicers the Great One had ordered them to develop, should they ever need to use the technology for the Robots. It really sped up the flow of information in this job.

_"Makes you wish Horus and the other Osirans **had** destroyed him, doesn't it?"_ Sarah Jane Smith, a woman in his family's bad books, asked the spiky-haired man in a brown pinstriped suit. The Operator couldn't help but wonder if _this_ was the Time Lord known as the Doctor – though the physical appearance of the man didn't correlate to the description the Great One had provided, Miss Smith appeared to interact with him well enough. The Great One _had_ told them of a Time Lord ability to cheat death by changing every aspect of their bodies...

There was one way to be certain, however – and that was to show the visual feed to the Destroyer himself. He therefore decided to forward it to the Liaison...

*DW* **_UNIT Base..._** *DW*

**"How** did you stop Sutekh last time, if he's as powerful as they say?" Clyde asked the Time Lord. Maybe they'd have a chance if they knew how the Doctor had pulled it off?

"To put it very simply, Clyde...he modified a Time-Space Tunnel to age Sutekh to death," Romana was the one who provided the answer. "The only trouble with taking that course of action was that it only destroyed his body..."

"So only his mind still survives," Jonathan surmised. However, he soon noticed a problem with this summary...and it was a _big_ one. As a matter of fact, he could see _two_...possibly three. "But that only raises three more questions, as far as I can see."

_"Three?!"_ all Humans present, save for Sarah Jane, exclaimed in shock.

"Yes," the _de facto_ Time Lord told them. "One – how did he survive the destruction of his corporeal body? Two – how did he leave the Ancient Osiran graffiti message we found near Park Vale? Three – _why_ did he resort to something as base as _graffiti?"_

"Suggest that Ancient Osiran graffiti was not written by Sutekh, Master Jonathan," K-9 offered a possible answer.

"What makes you say that, K-9?" Maria Jackson beat the others to the question.

"Analysis of errors in the inscription indicates lack of considerable experience with the dialect," the Robot Dog supplied the answer.

"Of course!" Romana cried in an epiphany. "Whoever left that message knew which hieroglyphics to use, but lacked expertise on how to write them! They were just copying from a book, following an instruction!"

"Which can only mean Sutekh's managed to secure the services of a helper," Jack surmised. "That answers Question Two."

"But who'd want to help someone this monstrous?" Gwen asked the question that was probably on all of their minds. "Looking at Sutekh's track record, no-one in their right mind would!"

"Which only means that they're _not_ in their right mind," Sarah Jane surmised that issue rather succinctly. "They either think they'll get something from it if they help him, or they're afraid he'll destroy them if they don't."

"Or both," the Doctor finally added. "But as to why he'd use graffiti? I'm guessing Sutekh just told them to leave a message that wouldn't mean much to most but would grab the attention of someone as clever as me." He didn't fail to notice Romana rolling her eyes at this, but he let it slide – they had to remain focused. "That means two different things. Thing One – he told them what to say, but not how to say it, which gives us the answer for Question Three."

"So what's Thing Two?" Jonathan asked his father, though he had a strange inkling.

"Thing Two...is that this is a trap," the Time Lord answered him. "One great, enormous trap...and the message was the bait..."

"The bait that was impossible for a Time Lord to refuse," one of the two UNIT Soldiers in the Meeting Room joined in the conversation for the first time, taking everybody aback. What alarmed the Children of Time most of all was that though his voice bore the faintest slimmer of a mechanical edge...it was a thoroughly sneering tone.

"Yeah, he took the bait...hook, line and sinker!" the other UNIT Soldier jeered, his voice sounding perfectly natural by comparison. But the first Soldier merely scowled.

"Be silent," the first snapped at the second. "I do not care for your primitive idiosyncrasies." The second seemed to obey the first's command at once, leaving the first UNIT Soldier to resume conversation with the infiltrated party. "Considering that the Time Lords are extinct, I do not pretend to understand how you encountered others of your race after the outcome of the Last Great Time War. However, this will not hinder my plan in any conceivable area – rather fortuitously, you have provided the perfect means for me to exact my vengeance, Oncoming Storm."

The Doctor's eyes widened, pupils dilating in horror. Though the voice was different, no doubt due to having to speak through whatever had been spying on them...the malevolence was all too familiar to the Time Lord. And if the next words spoken were any indication, it was all too familiar to Sarah Jane as well...

"Sutekh," she whispered in horror. The other Children of Time couldn't fail to notice one thing about the horror in her voice – it surpassed that of the occasion she'd encountered Davros for the second time in her life. Though it had been whispered, it was noticed by the UNIT Soldier whom Sutekh had been using as his medium.

"And of course, one could hardly forget the girl who assisted the Time Lord who deprived me of my powers in his effort to destroy me," the creature that was not a UNIT Soldier sneered. "We meet again, Sarah Jane Smith. I have a host of acquaintances who have found you to be quite a thorn in their side." Gauging her look of confusion, he dropped the bombshell. "Perhaps you'd prefer to have these matters clarified for you...by the Family Slitheen."

As the looks of confusion turned into shock, both UNIT Soldiers moved their hands to their foreheads...and made an unzipping motion, confirming the suspicions of the Doctor, Jack, Sarah Jane and her friends. Sutekh _was_ being helped...by the Slitheen. He must have promised them a great deal for them to cooperate with him...with that in mind, the Doctor couldn't help but be reminded of the Time he'd spent being tortured in Sutekh's Tomb in Saqqara. But where the second UNIT Soldier's skin fell away to reveal a Slitheen, the first's revealed something else entirely...

"A Service Robot!" the Doctor exclaimed in surprise, taking in the obvious explanation for the mechanical-yet-sneering tone that had been spoken by the first UNIT Soldier as he ushered Romana behind him as though to keep her safe (though he would have done the same for Jonathan had he been near enough). However, this one appeared quite different from the Mummy-esque Servicers he'd encountered in 1911. This one, while still bulky and thickset, had a more Humanoid frame than the earlier versions. Gone too was the wiry web of metal, protected by bindings and bandages, that gave the last ones shape...and in its place was a more armoured figure. It also had a pair of Humanoid hands, no doubt to better fit into the skin suit.

"You have been a fool, Doctor, to believe you had seen the end of me," Sutekh laughed ominously through the Service Robot. "I have not been idle in the years since we last met. Now, you shall pay for your arrogance and that of your wretched kind, Time Lords...as will every last one of those precious Human insects you care so much about!"

*DW* **_elsewhere..._** *DW*

**As** all of this had been happening, the Slitheen Family had been anxiously awaiting the Lord of Death's instruction. And once he'd finished announcing the doom of their common foes, the instruction finally arrived.

"Secure the Doctor _and_ Sarah Jane Smith! I have long desired to make them suffer personally! Kill the rest of their rabble!" the Last Osiran commanded, his voice betraying his hatred and lust for vengeance.

"It will be done, Mighty Great One," the Liaison acknowledged, before turning to the Service Robot Operator. "You heard the Great One – it's high time we eradicate their troublesome little gang and deliver Miss Smith and the Doctor to him!"

"At once, Brother," the Operator replied, before using the Cytronic Controls to use the Servicer to begin their attack on the opposing party in the UNIT Base...


End file.
